Monthly Archive: February 2012

It is likely that these children smiling at us from a century ago are no longer with us. The image comes from a collection of large format negatives in the Tribune library. They were enclosed in a 1950s era Telegram-Tribune window envelope, labeled “Mrs. Leonard.” The images however are decades older. How old? Two of …

Find the path to international recording fame using this one weird trick. Record in the bathroom. Among the porcelain urinals and sinks, across the hall from radio station, KCPR is the sound environment that launched a recording star. Alfred M. Yankovic is arguably the second most famous Cal Poly graduate after John Madden. If you …

Here is a quirky design lost to history. Ship on a stick, or sticks. The rock is familiar but today there is a more solid causeway leading out to it. This is a digital scan of postcard for sale on the internet with a postmark of 1931. The inscription reads “Morro Rock, higher than Woolworth …

The Paso Robles Chamber of Commerce surprised the county and city of San Luis Obispo on January 29, 1942 by announcing they would be happy to have a federally constructed airport. City leaders had been in negotiations with the Civil Aeronautics Authority for two months as the San Luis Obispo city and county avoided committing …

William Basie did not have an easy path to success. His mother and father saved pennies to pay for music lessons. He began as a drummer in the school band and switched to piano in his teens. A good choice. His professional career began before he was 20 as a $3 a night piano player …

The previous three buildings that The Tribune called home have been torn down. However if you want to trace the history of the San Luis Obispo Library all four buildings still stand. Before Google there were libraries. A town had shaken the dust off of its boots and arrived in the civilized world with the …